Page 124 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

.
pass. You have . . " She motioned toward her own
undeveloped chest. "So we do not have to be dumped.
But it is our duty to help the little ones."
"The Germans are right," Shifre said. "It is disgust-
ing."
"Disgusting? Garbage can be Paradise," Rivka said.
"One of my sisters could not run fast enough to dis-
appear into the midden's sanctuary. They sent her with
my mother, right through the door into Lilith's Cave.
I can still hear her calling to me to save her, to hide
her . . ."
Hannah suddenly heard a child's voice, as if from far
away, saying, "Hannah, look where I hid..." She
couldn't think who the child was. Or who Hannah was.
Her head hurt with trying to remember.
"She went on the line and was gone," Rivka finished.
Hannah stared at Rivka. "What line?"
"The line. The one drawn by the malach ha-mavis,
.
the Angel of Death. The one into . . " Her face pale,
her coffee-colored eyes unreadable, Rivka stopped.
Hannah nodded slowly, suddenly sure of one thing,
as if she had known it all her life: "Into the gas ovens,"
she whispered.
"Oh, Chaya, not another one of your stories," Shifre
said, her eyes wide and full of fear.

Rivka led them to her own barracks, three.buildings
away from the place where the zugangi were housed.
There were names carved on the bunks and magazine
advertisements stuck onto nails in the walls, as if the
women had tried to personalize the place, but it did not

117